2008/12/25

AirJelly's environment is the air. Unlike AquaJelly, the remote-controlled jellyfish AirJelly does not swim through water, but instead glides instead through a sea of air thanks to its central electric drive unit and an intelligent, adaptive mechanism. It is able to do so because it consists of a helium-filled ballonett. AirJelly's sole source of power is two lithium-ion polymer batteries connected to the central electric drive unit. It transmits the force to a bevel gear and from there to a succession of eight spur gears, which move the eight tentacles of the jellyfish via cranks. Each tentacle is designed as a structure with Fin Ray Effect® . Propulsion of a ballonett by means of peristaltic motion is hitherto unknown in the history of aviation. AirJelly is the first indoor flight object with peristaltic drive. This new drive concept, with propulsion based on the principle of recoil, moves the jellyfish gently through the air....Popeye's "well blow me down..."

It is the blessed Christmas season. But of course you know that. Unless you live ten miles up a box canyon deep in the Wasatch Range with only your dog Boomer and are demented from drinking bad water, you are inhaling Christmas night and day and "Adeste Fideles" is stuck in your head like a five-inch nail.

This Christmas I am in New York for the general dazzlement and variety. On Sunday St. Patrick's was packed to the rafters for 4 p.m. Mass in Spanish, the name "Jesucristo" drifting around the battlements, and a few blocks south the Jane Austen Society was meeting to discuss Christmas in Olde England, and in between, I stopped in a men's store and bought six pairs of red socks. For myself.

Down deep I am selfish and don't like to feel obliged to do what other people are doing -- dancing, leaping, piping, drumming, welcoming the Christ Child with joyful hearts, etc. -- at the times when other people are doing them. This city enables one to leap or pipe pretty much whenever you feel like it, even after 10 p.m. on weekdays.

Yesterday I took my sandy-haired bright-faced daughter to dinner at 9 p.m., which is late for a 10-year-old, and introduced her to the idea of Ordering Whatever You Want, No Matter What Others May Think, and she got the chicken Kiev and for dessert an apple tart as big as a Gideon Bible. She is a good eater. She approached her meal with the quiet devotion that a chicken deserves. She loved the candles, the linen, the silver, the formality. I enjoyed a tiny quail egg poached in a toasted brioche with a dollop of caviar, though, thanks to my upbringing ... READ MORE

The recent cacophonous chorus surrounding Michelle Obama's derriere is undeniably troubling. Yet, to be quite honest, it is also strangely gratifying to me. I recently read Salon's feature piece "First Lady Got Back." Taken aback by the implicit oxymoron between the words, "First Lady" and "Got Back," I sat for hours pondering all that this cluster of words signified. For instance, what does it mean to place "first lady," which designates a "respectable" social position, with "Got Back," a sexist epithet coined by rapper, Sir Mix-a-Lot, in his hot song, "Baby Got Back," in the early 90's? And, what does it mean to inscribe these words onto the body of our very first African American First Lady?

The deployment of both "lady" and "back" can be viewed as problematic. First, discourses about mythologized "ladies" didn't initially include black women. A "lady" was a woman or wife who innately possessed such virtues as delicacy, piety, beauty, politeness and gentleness. Black women, who were not seen as "ladies," "women" or wives, were historically not privy to such designation. Historically speaking, this was a term reserved for white women. And let me just say upfront, this was not necessarily a compliment. As I understand it, "lady" was just as imprisoning as the more derogatory terms used for black female slaves -- just in a different way.

Secondly, there is a long history of discourses regarding harmfully reductive views of black women's "backs." Black women have been pathologized and objectified because of their "backs," which, by the way, come in all shapes and sizes just like those of other men and women. Sir Mix-a-Lot's hit song, "Baby Got Back," was only the tip of the iceberg. The cultural chorus regarding black women's bodies, particularly their fragmented backside, had been singing for centuries. Sir Mix-a-Lot simply joined in. Or did he?

To be sure, the mass production of "Baby Got Back" via radio and television took ongoing essentialist discourses about black female hyper-sexuality to new dimensions. The constant reproduction of the gyrating images became a source of social studies on black female sexuality. This was obviously deeply problematic. However, as stereotypically reductive as this song and video was, in its own way, it also celebrated black women's bodies. Sure, this so-called celebration reproduced every stereotype about black female sexuality possible. And, by fetishizing black women's privates, reduced them to mere objects, namely their butts. This was absolutely damaging. However, it also did something else. Through the process of representation (via video imaging), which presented black women's butts as evidence of stereotypical difference (regarding black female sexuality), many black women, including myself, strangely found a sense of pride in our bodies, specifically our butts. Thus, while Sir Mix-a-Lot (and others) reassigned mythical legacies to our behinds, some black women were re-imagining themselves as subjects with beautiful bodies.

However, it is important to realize that this was not everyone's experience. Nor was it likely the experience of those like Sir Mix-a-Lot who commodified black women's bodies for his own use and enjoyment. Nor is it likely the experience of many of those who have joined in the chorus regarding Michelle Obama's butt. Deployment of terms such as "lady" and "back," without some sort of critical analysis is irresponsible at best, particularly in reference to black women. Even if Obama's butt makes us beam with pride every time her beautiful body sashays center stage, we cannot ignore the effects of the obvious "blackening" of the already historically brimming noun, "lady," when placed together in a title like "First Lady Got Back." There are serious implications to consider here, namely the pathologization of our first African-American "First Lady."

In short, if we are not more careful in our utilization of language and not more forthright in our criticisms of the language of others, we run the risk of reinforcing historical ideals of black female sexual savagery at the highest level. This is very dangerous. So, if Michelle Obama's body makes us proud, why not shape our enthusiasm with a critique of the status quo, which continues to treat her as an object by fragmenting her to her parts? Obama is a subject -- more than a body, and, more than a butt. Inscribing her with words without carefully evaluating their operation first is beyond distressing. It is death dealing. Not just to her, but to all women.

Somebody make it stop. This incessant fixation on Hitler's sexuality, on his alleged perversity. I think it's fair to say that the very apex of cultural stupidity in our era is the compulsive conjunction of Hitler and sex. He was a "predatory" homosexual. He engaged in excretory practices with his underage half-niece. And, one of the most enduring, a myth I thought I had refuted once and for all but that now rears its head again: Hitler had only one testicle.

Isn't it obvious by now what this is about? Our need to prove that Hitler was not "normal," thus not like us, normal human nature thereby exculpated from producing a Hitler. It fills a need to reassure ourselves there is no Hitler potential in human potential. We're off the hook.

Discover Magazine article by LeeAundra Temescu and published online November 3, 2008 proffers: Humans have a record of screwing up democracy, but we aren't the only species getting in on the act. The following I found intriguing:

2 Humans are not the only ones that vote. When it is time to find a new hive, honeybees vote for the best location, even though they can’t count. After scouts return from casing possible sites, they dance. The bees that dance most vigorously will recruit other scouts until one site wins.

19 Rain can tilt elections. Between 1948 and 2000, for every inch of rain on Election Day in a given county, there was an average 0.8 percent decline in turnout.

2008/11/16

Eunoia is the shortest word in English containing all five vowels - and it means "beautiful thinking". It is also the title of Canadian poet Christian Bok's book of fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel.

Mr. Bok believes his book proves that each vowel has its own personality, and demonstrates the flexibility of the English language. Extracts from each chapter are available at BBC. What beautiful thinking listens and reads like is not loss in either Bok's nor Milk's explorations.

Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.

Rhetorical: Has Obama become an effigy at the behest of elementary school students or are school children, as they often do, mimicking their parents who joke (?) with race and terrorism? For this I request that the Phantom Band chime in: No More Fooling (courtesy of Bumrocks). WTF??!!!

Electoral maps are all the rage in presidential election coverage, with NBC going so far as to turn the Rockefeller Center ice rink in New York City into a map of the U.S. on Election Day. As the network called states for the two candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, staffers manually colored those states blue or red, respectively.

Mark Newman, a professor of physics at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, took the simplistic concept of red and blue states and exploded it, reimagining the country as defined by its politics and not by its borders. His "cartograms" take state- and county-level election returns as well as data about population and electoral college representation and churn out a vision of the U.S. that is novel, yet still recognizable.

2008/11/11

This concert was postponed for over a month due to an ailing Buckshot. Restored, Buckshot mastered the crowd. Black Moon and Smif-N-Wessun (Duck Down) performed cuts off Enta Da Stage and Da Shinin‘, respectively, backed by a live band giving the classics a renewed sound for a time and era of Hip-Hop that fails to be recaptured on new albums.

The image shows the tiniest representation of the new US president yet. Each face is built from roughly 150 million carbon nanotubes.

As the artist/mechanical engineer that made them, John Hart, puts it "that's about how many Americans voted on November 4". Although, of course, only about 53% of those nanotubes actually voted Obama. For more images, and to see how they are made visit Hart's site.

Hart's creation is the latest in a tradition of nanoscale engineers making tiny structures for artistic or self-promotional reasons.

The addictive melodies and passionate execution of the performance renders Private Fortunes, as I have not yet listened to the entire album, perhaps the most accessible of his non-Volta recordings, and the perfect entry point to anyone not yet familiar with what this prolific artist has to offer.

My death-metal head homeboy Tex hipped me to virtuosicTMV almost four years ago and my fan-hood is (t)history.

From the archives of the best mixtape of all times. This mixtape is good enough that when crackheads robbed my previous car while I was still living in Capitol Hill (NE, District of Columbia) they walked with this double CD classic - now that's good music.

2008/10/12

Fulsome has not shut down... Simply, I am a father of a three-plus-week son/sun an thus bee-beaver-busy, ya dig?

My wife is a fan of music, not as exaggerated as me, nevertheless, moments ago while cooking red potatoes , pan-fried, hash browns (I'm a former head-chef too, word...) she asked me to play The O'Jays. In between filling the request I performed a deft internet search and found the latter embedded vid. Watching this video reminds me of the 13 months I worked as an consultant for EPA through CSC wherein I found salvage in Soul Train-lines. Whenever the work-week required 50+ hours I played Soul Train d-lines that I had/have saved on my portable external hard drive, to keep my spirits up. Who knew Soul Train-line watching was homoestatic?

More apt to the point, my cousin, Master Melquan who introduced Nas to The Large Professor which is how Nas landed on Live At The Barbeque and thus Illmatic was born, who DJ'd on Sunny Day In Harlem taped every Soul Train-line from the late 80's to early 90's - waiting until the last ten minutes of ST to record on VHS the ST-line. As a teens we watched hours of nonstop ST-lines while laughing for hours - therein this was where I developed my appreciation for the beauty of ST and its line.

Per XXL's print magazine of Sept. 2008: The Year of POLITICS & BULLSH#T:Long Beach, California native created one of the biggest buzzes as he leaked a new song every week for an entire year under the "Hip-Hop Weekly" banner. Crooked I. CI freestyled the following relative how the internet affected him and Hip-Hop in general. Below are my favorite excerpts, of a MC that I had not previously bothered to entertain and rather read his lyrics than listen to, of the aforementioned:

If I blow your memory on ya spine, will you think back?/To a time when cassette tapes were shrink-wrapped/Before you miniature midgets started to shrink rap/Now everybody's an MC, I even heard a shrink rap/

I'm usually critical of Pharrell genuflecting production credit to Chad (Pharrell + Chad= the Neptunes) but here Pharrell's signature production anchors in nostalgia that made the Clipse: Grindin' a Top 10.

Common lays concrete with on Announcement with his rhymes and keeps his promise dismissing Yezzy (Kanye) due to his hyper-braggadocio whereby he credits himself for the successes of Common’s last two albums even though much of the production style is in the breathe of J Dilla (James Yancey) and done so in Jay Dee’s honor (on Be half of the album was supposed to be produced by 'Dilla however his hospitalization impeaded that and more notably on Finding Forever posthumously) - effer...

The four-piece band, The Randy Watson Experience, was in between songs. ?uestlove sat isolated in a drum room. James Poyser sat comfortably at the same organ Stevie Wonder used on the Music of My Mind album. Adam Blackstone stood across from James with his bass slung over his neck. The late Chalmers “Spanky” Alford sat in a chair near the door leading from the studio to the control room.

I looked around for the Reverend Al Green, but I couldn’t see him. I could hear him talking through the monitors though. I stood up to look over the mixing board and through the window. He was standing in the vocal booth. I think he may have been jotting down some lyric ideas or something.

At this stage in the project, Al’s new album was going to be a duets album, and ?uestlove was just going to produce a song or two. Fortunately, ?uesto had something else in mind.

For the next 3-4 hours, I watched and listened as 8 demos were recorded, mostly with Al freestyling lyrics off of the top of his head. 7 of the songs made it to the album in finished form, including “You Got The Love I Need.”

The above link is exactly what was recorded that night… Compare it to the released version.

"I always knew I would do something in entertainment," says Mr. Cundieff, a native of Pittsburgh, whose name, he has been told, is "Welsh or English for he who stands by the edge of the cliff and looks into the abyss."

What distinguishes Mr. Cundieff from many of his predecessors, Mr. McHenry said, is the political edge he brings to the work, without diluting its laughs.

"When Rusty does comedy, it's not just a silly, for-fun sort of thing," says Mr. McHenry, who with his partner George Jackson played cameo roles as concert promoters in "Black Hat." "He gives you double-entendres, a layering of messages and social commentary."

Behind a pair of deep-tinted eyeglasses and a curtain of finger-length braids, Mr.

"Fear of a Black Hat" cost less than $1 million to make and was inspired by Rob Reiner's "This Is Spinal Tap," a mock documentary released in 1984 about a fictitious heavy-metal rock group. Whereas "This Is Spinal Tap" has as its running joke the difficulty of finding a drummer (for some reason they spontaneously combust), "Fear of a Black Hat" shows the difficulty a rap group has finding a manager (for some reason they keep being shot).

After Mr. Cundieff finished writing the script for "House Party 2," he and Darin Scott, a producer of "Menace II Society," went to Las Vegas to relax. While there, the pair won $800 at the gambling tables.

They used $600 of that money and a borrowed video camera to shoot a 20-minute short film that was the embryonic "Fear of a Black Hat." The short persuaded a small independent movie company, ITC, to back the full-length film, Mr. Cundieff says. (Mr. Scott has the producer's credit on the feature.)

Mr. Cundieff wanted "Fear of a Black Hat" to reveal the petty, violent, misogynist and generally misguided inner workings of a fictitious rap group called N.W.H., short for Niggaz With Hats (a play on the hard-core rap group N.W.A.). Much of the fictional group's identity comes from wearing oversize hats that resemble the headgear in Dr. Seuss.

Audience response was "tremendous" at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, according to Geoffrey Gilmore, the festival's program director, who felt the film had crossover potential. But in the meantime, another film, "CB4," came along. It was also billed as a "rapumentary," and it had a larger budget and an actual star, Chris Rock, who is a regular on "Saturday Night Live." A deal to distribute "Fear of a Black Hat" was put in limbo. And "CB4" was released last spring. It bombed.

While much of the humor of "Fear of a Black Hat" is universal in its portrayal of greed, envy, jealousy, sexual insincerity and fear in a rap subtext, the same cannot be said of the film's colorful language. Here are definitions of some recurring terms and phrases used in the movie.

2008/07/30

In late 2005 Ghostface Killa and MF DOOM were both recording over tracks from J Dilla's instrumental opus, Donuts, which saw release the following February. Some of these were released on Ghostface's Fishscale in 2006, while others, including a Dilla-Doom project, were postponed indefinitely after J Dilla's passing. Two of these tracks, “Sniper Elite” and “Murder Goons,” are presented here for the first time. The two are taken from two sequential songs off Donuts, meant to mix together. We are presenting the two songs unmixed, plus the two mixed together as a bonus track.Listen to samples and/or buy individual MP3s (360 kbps, non-DRM): Exclusive digital releases: 99¢ x 3 tracks.

+First time on MP3, vinyl & CDmany of the following albums are available:

Dis-klā-mər

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The group name Alphabet Soup is explained as follows:
The communicative rudiments of language starts with the alphabet. The alphabet is a set of letters and/or other characters written or otherwise (oral-tradition, etc.) arranged in a customary order to convey knowledge or inform. The "Soup" was our music. Together the compliment of both words (alphabet) and music rendered the EP: Sunny Day In Harlem.

Physically, Holden is gangly and tall. He is also described as having several gray hairs on the right side of his head. These two qualities contribute to Caulfield's appearing to be older than his age, yet his mannerisms and behavior contradict that impression. One of Caulfield's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" human qualities. Qualities such as narcissism, hypocrisy, and superficiality embody Holden's concept of phoniness; and, unfortunately, Holden is adept at realizing these qualities in other people. This serves to bolster Holden's cynicism and consequently contributes to his mistrust of other people. Interestingly, despite Holden's strong disdain for phony qualities, he exhibits some of the qualities that he abhors, thereby making him a somewhat tragic character.

Caulfield is the second of four children, with two brothers, D.B. and Allie, and one sister, Phoebe. (There is also a second sister, Viola, who is briefly mentioned in the short story "I'm Crazy," but is never referred to again.) Allie is deceased at the time of The Catcher in the Rye. Their parents are left unnamed in Salinger's works.

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, Caulfield looks down upon the elite world he occupies. He questions the values of his class and society and sometimes appears to oppose conventions merely for the sake of opposition. He is widely considered to be the template for the "angry young man" archetype.